Though his head felt it, the room was not spinning. The muffled conversation was screaming. Lenny was sure he was about to pass out. In the six months since he was promoted, things had become increasingly chaotic.
“When the path is clear, anyone can be the leader,” I told him. “In the middle of ambiguity, leadership is visible. The person who paints the clearest picture of reality will emerge as the leader.”
What is this “reality” stuff, and why is it so important?
Because reality always wins. You can identify it and deal with it, or ignore it and allow it to eat your lunch.
What is reality in your company? It’s the obstacle in the way of your goal. It’s the head trash that distracts you from effective action, that diverts you from your purpose.
Purpose is the starting place for the reality conversation. Purpose helps to make sense of the chaos, allows us to see clearer patterns in the swirl. Purpose creates context for the noise. If you are a Manager and the world is churning, sit down with your team and have a talk about purpose.
Tom — wonderful stuff. A very successful admiral once told me: “Always start with the existential question: why are we here?” People tend to think that will be an easy question and it never it. But, as you suggest, purpose can become the leader’s Polaris.
Very insightful!
The danger of getting lost in the chaos (and there is always chaos) is that we find ourselves being dictated by tasks that seem to solve immediate problems but do not fulfill our overall purpose.
Very few individual tasks have ever made someone a success. It’s the culmination of many tasks focused in the right direction that bring results.